gard for me, but from a very difinterested Value which I have for her. If from any Hint in: any future Paper • of yours The gives me the leaft Encouragement, I doubt not but I fhall furmount all other Difficulties ; and infpired by fo noble a Motive for the Care of my Fortune, as the Belief fhe is to be concerned in it, I will "not defpair of receiving her one Day from her Father's own Hand. I am, S IR, Your most obedient humble Servant, To his Worship the SPECTATOR. Clytander! The humble Petition of Antony Title-Page, Stationer, in the Centre of Lincolns-Inn-Fields. Sherweth, T HAT your Petitioner and his Fore-fathers have been Sellers of Books for Time immemorial; That your Petitioner's Anceftor, Crouch-Back-TitlePage, was the firft of that Vocation in Britain; who keeping his Station (in fair Weather) at the Corner of Lothbury, was by way of Eminency called the Stationer, a Name which from him all fucceeding Bookfellers have affected to bear: That the Station of your Petitioner and his Father has been in the Place of his prefent Settlement ever fince that Square has been built: That your Petitioner has formerly had the Honour of your Worship's Cuftom, and hopes you never had Reafon to complain of your Penny-worths; that particularly he fold you your firft Lilly's Grammar, and at the fame Timea Wit's Commonwealth almoft as good as new: Moreover, that your first rudimental Effays in Spectatorship were made in your Petitioner's Shop, where you often practifed for Hours together, fometimes on his Books upon the Rails, fometimes on the little Hieroglyphicks either gilt, filvered, or plain, which the Egyptian Woman on the other Side of the Shop had wrought in Ginger-bread; and fometimes on the English Youth, who in fundry Places there were exercifing themselves in the traditional Sports of the Field. FROM these Confiderations it is, that your Petitioner encouraged to apply himself to you, and to proceed humbly humbly to acquaint your Worship, That he has certain Intelligence that you receive great Numbers of defamatory Letters defigned by their Authors to be published, which you throw afide and totally neglect: Your Petitioner therefore prays, that you will please to bestow on him thofe Refufe Letters, and he hopes by printing them to get a more plentiful Provifion for his Family; or at the worst, he may be allowed to fell them by the Pound Weight to his good Customers the Paftry-Cooks of London and Westminster. And your Petitioner fball ever pray, &c. To the SPECTATOR. The humble Petition of Bartholomew Ladylove, of Round-Court in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields, in Behalf of himself and Neighbours. Sheweth, TH THAT your Petitioners have with great Industry and Application arrived at the most exact Art of Invitation or Entreaty: That by a befeeching Air and perfwafive Address, they have for many Years last past peaceably drawn in every tenth Paffenger, whether they intended or not to call at their Shops, to come in and buy; and from that Softness of Behaviour, have arrived among Tradefmen at the gentle Appellation of the Farwners. THAT there have of late fet up amongst us certain Perfons from Monmouth-freet and Long-lane, who by the Strength of their Arms, and Loudnefs of their Throats, draw off the Regard of all Paffengers from your faid Petitioners; from which Violence they are diftinguished by the Name of the Worriers. THAT while your Petitioners ftand ready to receive Paffengers with a fubmiffive Bow, and repeat with a gentle Voice, Ladies, what do you want? pray look in here & the Worriers reach out their Hands at Pistol-shot, and feize the Customers at Arms Length. THAT while the Fawners ftrain and relax the Muscles of their Faces in making Distinction between a Spinster in a coloured Scarf and an Hand-maid in a Straw-hat, the Worriers use the fame Roughness to both, and pre { vail upon the Eafinefs of the Paffengers, to the Impoverifhment of your Petitioners. YOUR Petitioners therefore most humbly pray, that the Worriers may not be permitted to inhabit the politer Parts of the Town; and that Round-Court may remain a Receptacle for Buyers of a more foft Education. And your Petitioners, &c. THE Petition of the New-Exchange, concerning the Arts of Buying and Selling, and particularly valuing Goods by the Complexion of the Seller, will be confidered on another Occafion. T : No. 305. Tuesday, February 19. Non tali auxilio, nec defenforibus iftis Virg. UR late News-Papers being full of the Project now on Foot in the Court of France, for establishing a Political Academy, and I myself having received Letters from several Virtuofo's among my Foreign Correfpondents, which give fome Light into that Affair, I intend to make it the Subject of this Day's Speculation. A general Account of this Project may be met with in the Daily Courant of laft Friday in the following Words, tranflated from the Gazette of Amfterdam. Paris, February 12. • Tis confirmed that the King ⚫ has refolved to establish a new Academy for Politicks, of which the Marquis de Torcy, Minifter and Secretary ⚫ of State, is to be Protector. Six Academicians are to be chofen, endowed with proper Talents, for beginning to form this Academy, into which no Perfon is to be • admitted under Twenty five Years of Age: They must likewife have each an Estate of Two thousand Livres a • Year, either in Poffeffion, or to come to 'em by Inheritance. The King will allow to each a Penfion of a • Thousand Thousand Livres. They are likewise to have able Ma'fters to teach 'em the neceffary Sciences, and to instruct them in all the Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and others which have been made in feveral Ages past. • Thefe Members are to meet twice a Week at the Louvre. From this Seminary are to be chosen Secre taries to Ambaffies, who by degrees may advance to higher Employments. CARDINAL Richlieu's Politicks made France the Terror of Europe. The Statesmen who have appeared in that Nation of late Years, have on the contrary rendered it either the Pity or Contempt of its Neighbours. The Cardinal erected that famous Academy which has carried all the Parts of Polite Learning to the greateft Height. His chief Defign in that Inftitution was to divert the Men of Genius from meddling with Politicks, a Province in which he did not care to have any one else to interfere with him. On the contrary, the Marquis de Torcy feems refolved to make fcveral young Men in France as wife as himself, and is therefore taken up at present in establishing a Nursery of Statesmen. SOME private Letters add, that there will also be erected a Seminary of Petticoat Politicians, who are to be brought up at the Feet of Madam de Maintenon, and to be dispatched into Foreign Courts upon any Emergencies of State; but as the News of this laft Project has not been yet confirmed, I fhall take no farther Notice of it: SEVERAL of my Readers may doubtless remember that upon the Conclufion of the last War, which had been carried on fo fuccefsfully by the Enemy, their Ge nerals were many of them transformed into Ambaffadors; but the Conduct of those who have commanded in the prefent War, has, it seems, brought fo little Honour and Advantage to their great Monarch, that he is refolved to truft his Affairs no longer in the Hands of thofe Military Gentlemen. THE Regulations of this new Academy very much deferve our Attention. The Students are to have in Poffeffion, or Reverfion, an Eftate of two thousand French Livres per Annum, which, as the present Exchange runs, will amount to at least one hundred and twenty fix Pounds English. This, with the Royal Allowance of a Thousand Livres, will enable them to find themselves in Coffee and Snuff; not to mention News-Papers, Pen and Ink, Wax and Wafers, with the like Neceffaries for Politicians. A Man must be at least Five and Twenty before he can be initiated into the Mysteries of this Academy, tho' there is no Question but many grave Perfons of a much more advanced Age, who have been conftant Readers of the Paris Gazette, will be glad to begin the World anew, and enter themselves upon this Lift of Politicians. THE Society of these hopeful young Gentlemen is to be under the Direction of fix Profeffors, who, it seems, are to be Speculative Statefmen, and drawn out of the Body of the Royal Academy. These fix wife Masters, according to my private Letters, are to have the following Parts allotted them. THE firft is to inftruct the Students in State Legerdemain, as how to take off the Impreffion of a Seal, to split a Wafer, to open a Letter, to fold it up again, with other the like ingenious Feats of Dexterity and Art. When the Students have accomplished themselves in this Part of their Profeffion, they are to be delivered into the Hands of their second Inftructor, who is a Kind of Pofture-Mafter. THIS Artift is to teach them how to nod judiciously, to fhrug up their Shoulders in a dubious Cafe, to connive with either Eye, and in a Word, the whole Practice of Political Grimace. THE Third is a Sort of Language-Mafter, who is to inftruct them in the Style proper for a Foreign Minister in his ordinary Difcourfe. And to the End that this College of Statesmen may be thoroughly practifed in the Political Style, they are to make use of it in their common Converfations, before they are employed either in Foreign or Domeftick Affairs. If one of them afks another, what a-clock it is, the other is to answer him indirectly, and, if poffible, to turn off the Question. If he is de fired to change a Louis d'or, he must beg Time to confider of it. If he be enquired of him, whether the King is at Verfailles or Marly, he must answer in a Whisper. If he be asked the News of the laft Gazette, or the Subject of a Proclamation, he is to reply, that he has not yet |
